Surprised Datsyuk rose, since his numbers didn't exactly spike last season. Kronwall got higher as well, significantly from what I remember him being. I think Howard's overall got worse, which is a little surprising.

But then again, the game rates pretty much everyone above a 75. Even enforcers were rated in the 80's in the last game. The whole rating system made no sense to me.

I don't see any reason to buy this game. The freezing issues last year were a joke and the game had other issues that EA didn't seem to care about.

Sometimes it's kind of fun to edit whether certain players fight or not. For example, usually the programmers set Crosby's fighting frequency to "Never" so that when you try to challenge him to a fight he doesn't oblige. If you set it to sometimes or always (or whatever it is) then you can activate an enforcer and pound on him all you want.

Hey, it's what video games are for, right? So you can witness phenomena you don't normally see in real life.

I think Kronwall and Quincey are a bit too high, Nyquist way too low, Franzen, Filppula and Helm a little lower

Pavel has 95 deke, Bert should definitely have 90+ as well.

Nyquist has 7 points points in 18 nhl games. While his potential is high, there is no way his overall should be higher than it is. he is still just a prospect. Howard should be about 3 points higher imo and franzen should be slightly lower than filppula.

I don't see any reason to buy this game. The freezing issues last year were a joke and the game had other issues that EA didn't seem to care about.

the new gm connected mode is enough for me to buy the game. it's going to be fantasy hockey on steriods lol. and the new skating engine looks great.

but i agree, the freeing issues last year were bad and they never could fix it. hopefully that isn't an issue this time around

That game was fun, but I could never get over those backhanded goals scored from the blueline, where the puck was essentially chipped over the goalie's shoulder. Pissed me off each time.

NHL 2004 for me. The fighting system was revolutionized when this game came out, and it was a massive upgrade over NHL 2003.

The puck physics were as realistic as you could get; I remember shooting with Lidstrom from his own zone to the opposite end of the ice, the puck takes a wild bounce at the corner of the boards and deflects off the goaltender and in the net.

How do they rank the Red Wings in comparison to the rest of the league? I don't expect it to be too great.

Offense 4/5 Defense 4.5/5 Goalies 4/5 (80, 90, 80)

As for the new ratings system, Datsyuk rose because EA Sports took a skills-based approach this time. In previous games your fighting ability and poise ratings amounted to speed, stick handling and shot accuracy in terms of contributing to the OVR rating.

As for the new ratings system, Datsyuk rose because EA Sports took a skills-based approach this time. In previous games your fighting ability and poise ratings amounted to speed, stick handling and shot accuracy in terms of contributing to the OVR rating.

Huh? I thought stats were different because in the previous game ratings were based on player type (e.g. enforcer, sniper, etc..) but now it's a position basis, forwards and defense. So players that were particularly good at their role like an enforcer are now rated a lot lower because they are, overall, below average forwards.